Brodie had set the lamps going, and now the square section of the submerged car became distinctly visible.

A little to one side a barge was moored, and the policeman, who had produced a serviceable looking revolver, determined to search it.
A plank spanned the foot or so of interstice between the quay and the rough deck, and, in the flurry of the moment, the three men crossed without warning the chauffeur as to their movements.

The squat craft had an open well amidships, but there were two covered-in ends, and McCulloch, taking one of the lamps, peered down into the nearest hatchway.
"If anyone is below there, speak," he said, "or I give you warning that I shall shoot at sight." There was no answer; he knelt down, lowered the lamp, and peered inside.
"Empty!" he announced.

"Now for the other one." He repeated the same tactics, but the cavity revealed no lurking form within.

Naturally, his companions were absorbed in McCulloch's actions, because they knew that any instant a blinding sheet of flame might leap out of the darkness and a bullet send him prostrate and writhing.